WASHINGTON TALK

WASHINGTON TALK; 2 Approaches to Rebuilding Women's Movement

By JULIE JOHNSON, Special to The New York Times

Published: August 14, 1989

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13—
Seizing an opportunity created by the Supreme Court's recent abortion ruling, two research groups are hoping to help foster a renewal of activism in the women's movement and infuse it with a sense of mission.

What it means to be feminist, especially to younger women, will be the focus of a conference planned in November by the Center for Women Policy Studies and another one next summer by the Institute for Women's Policy Research.

Adopting different approaches, the Washington-based organizations will seek to stimulate a search by women for new political and legislative strategies to win economic and political gains that have eluded them in the last decade. Both groups are aiming at women who are 18 to 29 years old, those who were in diapers or not yet born when Betty Friedan first identified the ''feminine mystique'' in 1963 and propelled women's concerns into the national conscience. 'Embarrassed' Feminists

Although the Court's decision upholding restrictions on abortions ''is galvanizing young women,'' said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, project director for the November conference, many of these women remain ''embarrassed to say they are feminists, often because of the connotations people use to define feminism.''

The Center for Women Policy Studies, a research group established in 1972, is bringing together older feminists with younger women who feel comfortable with that label and are looking to expand upon it. Its conference will focus heavily on reproductive rights. 'Back to the Mainstream'

On the other hand, the two-year-old Institute for Women's Policy Research is designed to appeal to women who endorse many women's issues but who may not comfortable with the feminist label. The group has not decided to what extent its conference will focus on abortion.

Sarah E. Jones, a 24-year-old legal assistant and former Congressional aide who is helping to plan the institute's conference, said that among the women who believe that feminist rhetoric should be tempered there is still a feeling that it is time to bring the movement ''back to the mainstream.''

Leslie R. Wolfe, the center's executive director, said women in their 20's had ''a different set of perspectives and start with certain assumptions that women of my generation had to struggle to accept.'' 'Institutions Have to Change'

''They believe we are equally capable of being parents and workers and leaders as men are, and that what has to happen - and this is the focus of the conference - is that the institutions have to change rather than the women,'' she said.

The center's conference, scheduled Nov. 10-12, will discuss how to ''structure the work place and structure leadership in government'' as well as child care, family and medical leave, abortion, education and employment.

Ms. Wolfe said planners would offer a vision of a ''new feminism'' spanning generations and incorporating a broad range of issues, including ''racism, heterosexism, disability rights and all discrimination.''

''Young women want to get a foot in the door of the movement,'' she said. 'Don't Have to Be Radical'

Ms. Jones said the institute's conference would be based on the thought that ''to be feminist you don't have to be radical or a lesbian.''

''There seems to be this dilemma among young women who identify with the issues and who in effect are saying, 'Don't call me a feminist but, yeah, I'm a feminist,' '' she said.

While she does not shun the ''feminist'' label, Ms. Jones said it carried many political implications, particularly in states with smaller urban populations, like her home state of Mississippi.

Nadia Moritz, an aide at the institute and the conference's project director, said, ''We want to see what young women's attitudes are about the women's movement.''

Ms. Moritz, who is 25 years old, said women had begun to realize that their gains might be eroding. For example, she said, the Supreme Court's recent term also included decisions that limited the ability of women and other minorities to bring or win lawsuits alleging bias by an employer.

''It has made some women who haven't thought about women's issues in general now scared,'' said Randi Mandelbaum, a 25-year-old lawyer who is a conference planner. Obstacles to Success

But even as the Washington conferences are planned, some experts in women's affairs caution that it may be some time before large numbers of young women become openly and actively involved.

Susan M. Hartmann, a professor of women's history and director of the Center for Women's Studies at Ohio State University, said that while the Court's abortion decision had mobilized more women, ''I think restrictions on abortion will have to get more severe for it to have a really enormous impact on young women.''

Professor Hartmann said the women's movement had historically comprised and had been dominated by generally affluent, well-educated women. And it is among these groups that abortion is least threatened.

And, the experts said, even while many professional, college-educated women are philosophically attuned to the issues, some are too young to have experienced difficulties with child care or infertility or the elimination of barriers on the job, particuarly at higher levels.

Deborah Shultz, a staff member at the National Council for Research on Women in New York and a 28-year-old graduate student in women's history, said: ''I think there's a lot of denial on the part of young women about the barriers that are there and also ignorance of them until they personally hit the glass ceiling.''